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Amy Callista 📚🧚✨

@theamycallista

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📚 Bookish humour, whimsy + frivolity
✍️ Translating everyday life into fiction
💕 Low stakes, good sentences
🇦🇺 Mum x 4 + 🐶

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Audiobook production quality is crazy 📚🎧

I am by no means an audiobook expert, I enjoy them sure but I don’t have a huge listen history.

This version of Dracula has been getting a lot of exposure so I thought I’d have a listen. It’s been super interesting to follow along- I guess I’ve never listened to an audiobook with this level of production value before. Cause it was wild!

The sound effects from the little ones like a kettle boiling, to the big grisly ones were so interesting.

The cast was impressive too, and I’ve always thought that narrators are a unique form of actor, but you can definitely see it here.

Anyways worth a listen if you haven’t done one before. Just beware the content is a little… dramatic 🧛

#audible #dracula #audiobookstagram #bookishthoughts #bookstagram by @theamycallista

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4 hours ago

Still obsessed with this character art 📚✨

The Descended Series by @ingrid.j.adams 💕

Such a beautiful depiction of what truly is a beautiful story.

I’ve spoke about this series before, but this saga somehow manages to be four genres at once and still feel completely cohesive. Oh and did I mention it’s a fully completed series?

At its core, this is a soulmates-across-lifetimes story, but it moves through paranormal romance, magical realism, mystery, and even a touch of witchy political fantasy by the end, without ever losing sight of the central love story anchoring it all.

The tropes are exactly what you want from this kind of saga. Reincarnation, a wounded hero hiding what he really is, found family, fated love that fate itself seems determined to keep tearing apart, and a “can love conquer destiny” thread running through every book.

Book one, Descended, introduces Indigo Wolfe, the golden boy everyone adores who is secretly unravelling under the weight of abilities he can’t explain, and Cordelia Carlisle, the girl who is the only person who truly sees him. When they’re torn apart, he’s thrust into a hidden world of magic that finally gives his pain a name.

Book two, Transcended, complicates everything. Indigo loves Cordelia, Cordelia’s feelings aren’t entirely settled, and Reinenoir, dangerously obsessed with Indigo, wants far more than his heart. Then tragedy hits and shatters what little certainty any of them had left.

Book three, Intended, asks the question that carries the whole back half of the series: can anyone actually fight the destiny they were always meant for? Expect buried secrets, found family stretched to its limits, and reveals that genuinely knocked me sideways.

Book four, Ascended, is the finale, and it does not hold back. Enemies become allies, friends become lovers, and lovers become enemies, all while the fate of an entire world hangs in the balance.

If you love a series that blends genres without losing its emotional core, this one deserves a spot on your TBR.

And this artwork truly captures what is the central heart of this story 💕

#descendedseries #paranormalromance #bookrecommendations #booki by @theamycallista

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19 hours ago

It’s almost here… 📚👑

I can guarantee that by October 27, I will not have read Crescent City or Throne of Glass. I know. I’ve heard all about it. Everyone has very strong opinions about this and I have instead chosen to believe that I will just pick it up as I go 😂 I’m going into the end of October with a world full of confidence and zero preparation. I’m a vibe reader / bookworm after all.

So here are some very accurate thoughts for everyone else going into ACOTAR 6 underprepared. Or at least only mildly prepared.

I’ll be nodding along in the comments with the energy of someone who understands every theory, when really I’ve forgotten the key players and there’s new ones I don’t know about due to my lack of TOG and CC knowledge. If you talk about ACOTAR 6 near me, please speak slowly. I might pick up on some of it, probably not all of it, and I’ll probably have to Google something when you leave.

I love the hype. I also love just being delusional and thinking it will all be just fine.

Anyways, that’s me - feel free to call out your friends and tag anyone who hasn’t yet read CC or TOG.
 Also, have you done a re-read? Are you planning to? Cause if you haven’t started yet, you might be in trouble 😂

#acotar #acotar6 #crescentcity #bookwormforlife #bookishhumor by @theamycallista

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2 days ago

Someone convince me 📚

I’ve had my kindle for many years. It’s been dropped a thousand times. It’s cracked in one corner. It glitches out on me all the time. And it freezes up randomly.

Soooo I’m seriously considering an upgrade for my birthday 🎂

But my question is- do I need the clicker ? It looks pretty cool but I’m wondering if it is actually worth the extra $

So convince me, do I need it or not? Will my little bookworm heart be in love with it?

#kindle #kindleunlimitedbooks #bookworm #kindleaccessories #readersofinsta by @theamycallista

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3 days ago

If you’re the same, let’s be friends 📚

Reading is absolutely me happy place. The l place I want to be when I’m in need of an unwind. When it’s been a big day and when I just need me time.

I’ve been a bookworm since I was a kid. It’s the place I go to feel happy, or sad for that matter. When I want to meet new people and experience new things.

I have a pretty wide reading variety. A bit of romance, and lot of Romantasy. There’s mystery and thriller in there too. Drama. All of it.

So what’s your current read?

#bookwormforlife #bookishfriends #bookishthings #bookstagram #bookishhumor by @theamycallista

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6 days ago

Whyyyy did I wait so long?!

This book has on my TBR for ages. I always figured I would get to it. It had so many people say they loved it I was almost scared to get into in case I didn’t like it!

I finally understand what all the hype was about.

For anyone unfamiliar, this is a dark dystopian romance set in New Found Haven, a corrupt surveillance state carved into rings of privilege and poverty and ruled by a masked elite.

It follows a mercenary who botches the 💀 of the president’s son and ends up forced into marriage with him instead, which honestly might be one of the best enemies-to-lovers setups I’ve read in a while. It’s book one of The Heart Duology, so there’s more story coming, and it’s easy to see why this one went properly viral.

But the thing that stood out to me most wasn’t even the premise, it was the writing itself. Wolfe moves between multiple POVs without ever losing clarity or momentum, and she manages to weave genuine political commentary into the story without it ever feeling like it’s slowing the plot down or lecturing the reader.

The tension builds steadily. Every word felt perfected. Like it was supposed to be there. It was detailed and intricate but it didn’t try too hard.

I’m so glad this one finally made it off my TBR and into my hands.

Has anyone else read Daggermouth, and more importantly….. bring on Python!!

Daggermouth by H.M. Wolfe

#daggermouth #hmwolfe #dystopianromance #bookishthoughts #darkromancereads by @theamycallista

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4 days ago

You know it 💪📚

This really is the full extent of my fitness routine.

If you know me in real life, this won’t be a surprise. My cardio is walking to the shelf and back. My strength training is holding a giant 600 page hardcover above my face in bed and hoping gravity doesn’t win. My recovery day is also today, and also tomorrow, and also every day after that.

I am not a gym girl. So I’m just going to reframe my actual favourite activity as a workout, because that just seems smarter. And we know us bookworms are smart little cookies. Ohhh a book and a cookie sounds good right now!

So no, you will not find me doing burpees, but you will find me doing bicep curls with a book, and quite frankly I think that’s the more impressive feat anyway.

Fellow non-exercisers, what’s your workout of choice? Mine is obviously reading, but I’d love to know I’m not alone in counting page-turning as a sport. And there’s so many many pages out there to turn, right?!

#bookwormforlife #bookstagram #bookishhumor #readersgonnaread #bookishfun by @theamycallista

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5 days ago

It happened bookish friends 📚

I have officially been influenced into reading The Washwoman at the River’s End by Megan Shade. This book has been absolutely everywhere the last 2 days on my feed, and my curiosity finally won. My TBR didn’t fight real hard though I must say.

For anyone who hasn’t come across it yet, here’s the blurb: for over a century, Bea has haunted the River’s End, cursed to wash the grave clothes of the 💀ing so their souls can cross into the After. They call her a monster, a murderess, but legends rarely tell the whole truth.

Brennen knows the Washwoman’s tale all too well, the monster who murdered the woman he loved and left him bound by an unbreakable vow of vengeance. But the woman he finds at the river is nothing like the creature from the legend.

It’s a gothic romantasy inspired by Scottish folklore, pitched as The Knight and the Moth meets Outlander, and the trope list alone is doing a lot of the convincing for me: true enemies to lovers, slow burn, forced proximity, guard and prisoner, forbidden love, yearning, and a possessive male lead.

It’s also the first book in a new series, The Curse of the Fates, which already has me wondering how much is being set up for later.

I’m only just starting it, so no thoughts or ratings yet, but given how much this book has taken over bookish social media, I have a feeling I’m either about to be obsessed or about to find out what all the hype was really about. I’ll keep you updated as I go.

Has anyone else already read this one?

#washwoman #meganshade #currentread #bookishhumor #bookwormlife by @theamycallista

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5 days ago

Anyone else with me?! 📚

Bookish humour is my love language, and apparently so is pre-ordering. If you’ve ever dreamed about shelf trophies, stayed up far too late for one more chapter, or filled your camera roll with screenshots of books you want to read, this one’s for you.

Bookworms are my people. You will all understand the struggle. We’re a little sleep deprived (and i thought i was over that after 4 kids!), a little socially awkward until someone mentions their current read, and completely delulu about the size of our TBR.

New book releases land every week and our bank accounts feel it. These are the bookworm problems that I experience every day. All day, every day.

The best part of being a bookworm is finding your people. Strangers become friends the second you swap book recommendations, and suddenly the awkwardness disappears. Readers gonna read. That’s what I love so much about the bookish community. I am thoroughly enjoying being a part of it. And i love the comments that say ‘me too!’

Which one of these called you out the hardest? And what’s your current read? I need new book recommendations, so tell me everything!

#bookwormforlife #bookworm #readersgonnaread #bookishhumor #bookishthings by @theamycallista

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6 days ago

My TBR has its own postcode 🫠

Is anyone else just smashing through books right now but getting no closer to actually making any kind of dent in their TBR? Because same.

I like to think I’m an efficient bookworm, truly. I have read countless books in record time. Others I truly savour for longer. But I’m devouring books right now and I can’t help up!

Side note: just finished Daggermouth and how is it that I’ve not read that one before now ?!?

But yes, as I was saying, too many books and too little time.

It feels like the end of year is approaching with just a giant collective push for more and more things to distract us readers.

Sigh.

So how’s your reading list going?

#bookishhumor #tbr #bookwormproblems #bookworms #hugetbr by @theamycallista

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6 days ago

A little roundup of home-grown reads from my recent reading pile, ranging from cozy murder mysteries to dark fantasy. Here’s a quick recap of each one.

MUSIC, MAYHEM AND MATRIMONY by Julie Anne Grasso. A cozy mystery romance set on an opulent English country estate in the 1930s. Six hopefuls compete in Aunt Hattie’s extravagant challenges, until she drops 💀 in front of everyone and our heroine has to clear her name alongside a dashing man she may have accidentally married. Closed-door, clean romance.

BRIDE OF DARKWATER by Wendy Godding. Forced marriage, enemies to lovers, and a morally grey duke. A princess weds her sworn enemy to secure peace, secretly planning to destroy him from within, until a curse drags them both to a realm of dark magic and dragons.

THE DESCENDED SERIES by Ingrid J. Adams. Set in 1990s Sydney, this four-book series blends paranormal romance with magical realism and asks whether love can endure life after life. Coming-of-age, celestial destiny, and big emotions.

THE DAWN WE SANG THEM HOME by L.M. Napoli. Dark fantasy about a princess whose family was murdered and whose body holds the power of four gods. Forbidden magic, slow-burn enemies to lovers, and a heroine forged by grief.

MOONVEIL & MAGIC by A.M. Gold. Urban romantasy with a reverse harem. A bookstore-owning Sentinel unearths a dangerous relic and is forced into hiding with a billionaire warlock and a street-level boss. Forced proximity, possessive heroes, and an ancient bond.

WITHIN THE SPACE OF A SECOND by Elise Helliwell. A slow-burn time travel romance. A woman who wakes every morning buzzing with strange energy finds a journal entry from her late mother dated after her death, then meets two strangers claiming to be time travellers.

#bookrecs #australianbooks #australianauthor #currentlyreadi̇ng #tbrlist by @theamycallista

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7 days ago

This could go really well, or…

A Bridgerton prequel following Violet and Edmund is officially happening! I genuinely love this love story 💕

So, the good news. This is the love story that started it all, the one we’ve only ever gotten in flashbacks and the occasional devastating bee-sting reminder, and getting a full series dedicated to it is exciting. I’ve always wanted to know more about their story because it’s always felt so heartfelt, like it was the one love story that set the bar for everyone.

Buuuut the Queen Charlotte series set an incredibly high bar for what a Bridgerton prequel can be.

And that’s exactly where my one caveat comes in. Queen Charlotte wasn’t just good for a spinoff, it was genuinely one of the best things to come out of the entire franchise if you ask me. The casting, the performances and writing that stood completely on their own, it was spectacular. .

If this Violet and Edmund series is going to work, it needs to be held to that same standard, not treated as a lesser addition just because it’s a prequel. We already know how their story ends, so the emotional weight is going to rely entirely on the execution getting it right.

So yes, I am thrilled, and yes, I will absolutely be watching it the moment it drops, but I am also going to be watching closely to see if it earns its place next to Queen Charlotte, rather than just riding on the Bridgerton name.

What do you think, are you hopeful this one lives up to it?

#bridgerton #violetbridgerton #bridgertonnetflix #shondaland #bookishthoughts by @theamycallista

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9 days ago